Salmon farms in Chile’s Guaitecas Archipelago linked to pollution, fishers say

Off southern Chile, a couple in their mid-40s is again pulling a full catch from the sea near the Guaitecas Archipelago. Yesica Fabiana Levinanco steers a small wooden boat as Paulo Vera Perez dives in cold water. Within hours, the boat holds shellfish, sea urchins, mussels and crabs for sale in Melinka’s market.

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Such catches were not possible in recent years, according to locals who saw sharp decline. "It seems incredible looking at it today, but for years the sea throughout this area was dead,\" said Leviñanco. \"There were no birds, fish or marine animals. A salmon-farming facility had destroyed everything.\"

Guaitecas Archipelago salmon farms and chemical discharge

The Guaitecas Archipelago has more than 40 small islands and sits on the route to Chile’s Patagonia. Although it is a national reserve, salmon farming operates across the area. Farms release hundreds of tonnes of chemicals and antibiotics into the sea each year. Sernapesca, Chile’s fisheries and aquaculture service, said at least 313 salmon farms were authorised there.

Levinanco and Vera Perez said intensive salmon farming harmed the places where they fished. The pair tried to reverse the damage by bringing healthy mussels and clams from elsewhere. Friends and relatives doubted the idea at first. Over years, the couple said the effort worked. \"The fish, birds and other marine animals came back,\" said Leviñanco.

Chile salmon industry exports, production and criticism

Salmon farming is one of Chile’s biggest industries, with impacts far beyond the archipelago. Chile is the world’s second-largest salmon producer after Norway. Salmon is also the country’s second-most exported product after copper. Sernapesca said Chile produced over 1 million tonnes in 2025. Salmon is not native and arrived from Norway in the 1970s and 1980s.

Scientists, environmental groups, fishers, Indigenous communities and residents have criticised the sector for years. They blame it for marine pollution linked to heavy chemical use at farms. Critics also allege failures on Indigenous rights and workplace safety rules. Ecoceanos, a Chilean nonprofit, reported 90 worker deaths since 2013. Fatal cases include net-cleaning entanglements and shipwrecks.

The archipelago reserve is the country’s largest and among its oldest, created in 1938. It also hosts endangered marine species. Locals and scientists said some farmed areas now have seabeds with very low oxygen. They said other life forms then struggle to survive. They often call such zones dead. One affected zone was an area where Leviñanco has fished for life.

Catalina Sapag, a marine biologist at Oceana in Chile, said salmon farming can affect ecosystems in several ways. \"Pollution can result both from the accumulation of organic matter and from the use of chemicals,\" said Catalina Sapag, a marine biologist and scientific area coordinator at the nonprofit Oceana in Chile. Support remains strong in some places because the sector provides jobs.

SalmonChile, a trade association, said falling fish stocks cannot be pinned only on salmon farming. It pointed to climate change, shifts in water temperature, illegal fishing and overuse. SalmonChile also cited the introduction of non-native fish for recreational fishing. The group said farming is just one factor. SalmonChile figures show the US buys 40 per cent of exports, worth USD 2.6 billion.

Japan takes 17 per cent, worth just over USD 1 billion, SalmonChile data said. Brazil follows with 13 per cent, valued at USD 796 million. These export markets support farms along southern coasts, including protected areas. The scale of trade also shapes political debate. Many local communities say their daily fishing costs are borne near the cages, not in distant markets.

Ley Lafkenche and Indigenous Mapuche Pu Wapi community push

In Melinka, diver Daniel Arturo Caniullan Huentel has become a leading critic of salmon farm pollution. Caniullan Huentel is 52 and has worked underwater for 35 years. Caniullan Huentel is also an ancestral authority of the Indigenous Mapuche Pu Wapi community. \"The seabed was teeming with life, with colors and animals everywhere. Today it is completely different,\" said Caniullan Huentel.

\"The colors have faded, many species have disappeared and organisms that did not exist before have appeared. Every time a new salmon-farming facility was installed, we saw the impacts increase.\" The community is seeking stronger protection under Ley Lafkenche, passed in 2008. The law lets Indigenous groups protect and co-manage marine and coastal zones, if ancestral practices are proven.

Ley Lafkenche does not give ownership of the sea or seabed. It protects ancestral use, including fishing, shellfish and seaweed gathering. It also protects access to sacred sites and navigation routes. Once an area is under application, the state cannot approve new concessions inside it. That can include new salmon-farming facilities. The Mapuche Pu Wapi community is using this process to block expansion.

In 2013, the state approved the community’s first request covering 8,000 hectares, or 19,800 acres. In 2017, the state rejected a second request for another 8,000 hectares, or 19,800 acres. In 2024, the state rejected a far larger proposal for 350,000 hectares, or 865,000 acres. Last March, the community filed a new request for 3,000 hectares, or 7,400 acres.

Caniullan Huentel said the fight is about more than one community’s fishing grounds. \"This struggle is not just about us,\" said Caniullan Huentel. \"It is about the future of the sea, small-scale fishing and generations to come. If we do not defend these territories today, tomorrow we risk permanently losing an immense natural and cultural heritage.\"

For now, fishers in the Guaitecas Archipelago are waiting for official decisions while trying to keep working. Levinanco and Vera Perez continue to collect shellfish and crabs near Melinka after years of local restoration efforts. The Mapuche Pu Wapi community is also awaiting a state response to its latest Ley Lafkenche application. Debates over salmon farming, jobs and marine damage remain active across southern Chile.

With inputs from PTI